Delhi Court Denies Anticipatory Bail To Ex-IAS Puja Khedkar, Asks Police To Widen Scope Of Investigation

A Delhi Court on Thursday denied anticipatory bail to former probationer IAS officer Puja Khedkar accused of “misrepresenting and falsifying facts" in her application for Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) Civil Services Examination, 2022.

UPSC yesterday cancelled Khedkar's candidature and debarred her permanently from all the future examinations and selections of the Commission. As per UPSC, she was found “guilty of acting in contravention of the provisions of the Civil Services Examination-2022 Rules”.

Additional Sessions Judge Devender Kumar Jangala of Patiala House Courts directed the investigating agency to widen its scope of investigation and directed it to conduct its probe in all fairness.

The court further directed the probe agency to find out the candidates recommended in the past who have availed the benefits beyond permissible limits and those who obtained benefits under OBC category without being entitled of the same.

The judge also directed the investigating agency to find out the candidates who have obtained benefit under persons with benchmark disabilities despite not being entitled.

"The investigating agency shall also find out whether an insider from the complainant (UPSC) helped the applicant (Khedkar) to attain her illegal goals," the court said.

It added: “The complainant (UPSC) also needs to relook its recommendations made in the recent past to find out the candidates (a) who have illegally availed the attempts beyond permissible limits; (b) who have obtained the OBC(non creamy layer) benefit despite not being entitled; (c) who had obtained the benefits of persons with benchmark disability, despite being not entitled.”

The judge observed that Khedkar had pre planned the conspiracy which was going on for last many years and thus her custodial interrogation was required to unearth the truth.

It said that Khedkar was able to breach the wall of the UPSC not only once but repeatedly with deceitful means and that she not only cheated and defrauded the Commission but the lawful rights of eligible aspirants.

”The present case may be only tip of the iceberg because if the applicant/accused can breach the scrutiny system of the complainant, why not others. Therefore, in order to maintain reputation, fairness, sanctity and faith of aspirants and general public, there is need on the part of the complainant to strengthen its SOP to ensure that such an event does not occur in future,” the court said.

Khedkar was represented by Advocate Bina Madhavan. SPP Atul Srivastava appeared for the State. UPSC was represented by Senior Advocate Naresh Kaushik.

Madhavan had prayed for anticipatory bail and stay on the arrest citing imminent threat of arrest due to criminal prosecution. She had said as soon as the UPSC lodged the FIR, media has been going around and doing witch hunt against Khedkar.

She contended that Khedkar, in good faith, mentioned the number of attempts as 5 in place of 12 and thus, there can be no misrepresentation. She had said that Khedkar's disability certificate showed her to be a candidate with 47% of benchmark disabilities which was issued by a medical board of AIIMS.

She further said that the criminal prosecution has been initiated against Khelkar because she lodged a complaint of sexual harassment against a Collector who called her in his office to which she refused.

APP Atul Srivastava appearing for Delhi Police had submitted that the offence of cheating cannot take place unless someone is duped and that in this case, UPSC has been duped by Khedkar.

The prosecutor had further said that the investigation is at a nascent stage and various documents, including Khedkar's medical documents, have to be probed.

UPSC's counsel, Senior Advocate Naresh Kaushik had told court that Khedkar's admission that she did not disclose about her earlier attempts was an admission of guilt.

The senior counsel had also said that integrity of examination system has been breached by Khedkar in complete defiance of the UPSC Rules.

Khedkar joined the Pune Collectorate as part of her probationary training in June. The allegation against her is that she “misused” quotas under Other Backward Classes (OBC) and Persons With Benchmark Disabilities (PwBD) to clear the CSE.

An FIR was registered against Khedkar by UPSC in the matter. A show cause notice was also issued to her on cancellation of her selection. She has also been barred from future examinations.

As per a public statement given by UPSC, a detailed and thorough investigation into the “misdemeanour” of Khedkar, revealed that she “fraudulently availed attempts beyond the permissible limit” under the Examination Rules by “faking her identity” by changing her name.

The statement also said that Khedkar changed the names of her father and mother as well as her photograph, signature, email address, mobile number and address.